I admittedly have never been much of a sports fanatic.
While I certainly can appreciate, respect as well as admire the commitment and talent of professional athletes, I never understood the obsession and emotional connection so many fans seem to have with something that bears so little impact on their day-to-day existence.
This generally applies across the sporting spectrum, but the phenomenon is especially underscored by football — or soccer, as we in Canada and the U.S. call what could easily be labelled as the world’s most popular sport.
The World Cup recently wrapped up, with France claiming the championship title over the course of some hard-fought matches. The world’s teams played well and there were no shortage of dramatic upsets, such as for example the underdogs from Croatia taking out teams like England to make the final — a remarkable feat, no question about it.
But perhaps most entertaining of all was watching reactions from spectators.
When after a game I see some people breaking down and weeping as though a loved one just died, or when rowdy hooligans brawl and destroy property even if their own team won, I’m left completely flabbergasted and lost for words. Who knows, maybe they are lamenting the loss of a major bet.
We’ve even seen it in Canada, from Montreal to Vancouver, following NHL Stanley Cup playoff games.
Yet short of a loan shark coming to collect a debt, a sport team’s performance — good or bad — does not impact, not even remotely, a person’s daily life.
Meanwhile, issues that do play important roles in our everyday lives do not typically seem to elicit the same level of passion.
No one seems to ever tear up and bawl about corruption and unfettered greed, famine and strife as he or she woefully clasps their face in their hands.
So whenever I see people wailing out in anguish over a sport, I cannot help but wonder what it would take to get them to care as passionately about issues that actually matter. Some sports fanatics undoubtedly have even committed to memory a plethora of statistics that in the end are useful for nothing more than perhaps playing Trivial Pursuit.
If only voters could be motivated and compelled to follow politics in the same passionate manner as football and other sports fans, political change to tackle problems like income inequality would be within reach.
Of course politics are not as exciting to follow as sports.
Regardless, the decisions our leaders make — from the local level on up to the federal stage — play a much greater role in our lives than a sport team’s championship title, and should therefore be taken at least as seriously as the outcome of a game.
